A man lost his life early Tuesday afternoon when his helicopter crashed in Lefebvre, near Drummondville in Centre-du-Québec.
The victim of the crash, which occurred around 12:40 p.m. on agricultural land on the edge of 10e Rang, is Sylvain Desmarais, a 64-year-old man, his daughter Vicky confirmed to TVA Nouvelles.
She saw the crash happen before her eyes. She watched her father take off, then do a few maneuvers and turns a few hundred feet in the air to make sure the aircraft was stable and working properly.
The helicopter then gained altitude, before exploding in mid-flight, said the one who was filming her father’s flight.
The man had just done maintenance work on his aircraft, a two-seater Robinson-type Rotoway helicopter that he assembled and mounted himself.
The helicopter had passed Transport Canada inspections and had been certified, her daughter said.
The 60-year-old was also an experienced pilot who had already worked for SOPFEU, notably as an instructor pilot for the Canadair CL-215 and CL-415 tanker planes.
He had spent the last summer working for Buffalo Airways in Europe, where he was fighting forest fires. An investigation was opened to establish the exact circumstances of this crash.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada will also be notified of the incident and should dispatch investigators to the scene.- With information from Jean-François Desbiens, TVA Nouvelles